Jewish Identity

I was 11 or 12 years old when my school took us to the neighborhood holocaust museum (what, yours doesn’t have one?) The rabbis warned us that the museum curators might not have the same sensibilities that we enlightened religious people did, and therefore we might encounter some pictures of...

The way I was raised, race, peoplehood, and identity were intertwined with ethics and morals. In Teachings It started with Jewish texts and teachings. Muslims were descendants of Ishmael, “a nation who resembled donkeys,” destined to be perpetual shit-disturbers. Christians were sons of Esau, a bloodthirsty cutthroat who lived by the...

She approaches, the wife of the president. Sherlon, her name is. Sherlon Goldfarbstein. "What a beautiful son you have," she exclaims, gesturing towards my daughter. She gestures enthusiastically towards my other daughter, thinking she’s my partner. “Such a beautiful son you've made.” Upon clarifying the second of her two mistakes, that my partner...

I was contemplating the talking points I was fed as a child, around both nationalism and religion, and I believe the key feature of these narratives was oversimplification. The most salient example of these was the grouping of all Arabs and all Jews into two homogeneous masses. There was no...

At this point, I have left both the religion and the nationalist views I was raised with. What follows is a short contemplation on  the similarities and differences between these two processes. My journey of leaving both was primarily an emotional one. The values and beliefs of Orthodox Judaism and...

Why must drag our next generation through the dregs of the holocaust? So that it doesn't happen again? Baloney. It's happening right now. It could happen again in a heartbeat. And if it happened to anyone else but your own ethnic kin, you'd be a lot less bothered. So let's...

With the help of AI, I am now able to attend to my true calling of being a children’s storybook author. This book is about pride. Jewish pride. The best kind.

Cards against Humanity is one of my favorite games. It's funny, it's simple, and it's not very competitive. When it's my turn to judge, those who know me know that certain cards are automatic winners. Cards I deem so hilarious that everyone else can just give up and go home. Auschwitz....